How to play Forty Thieves

Forty Thieves is a two-deck solitaire with a reputation: careful players win it, careless ones rarely do. The forty cards dealt at the start are the thieves, and your job is to get every one of the 104 cards back home. The game also goes by Napoleon at St Helena, after the story that the exiled emperor passed his evenings with it. Every deal here has been played through by the computer first, so each one can be won.

The deal

• Columns: ten columns of four cards each, all face up.
• Foundations: eight empty spots at the top, two for each suit.
• Deck: the other 64 cards, face down at the top left, with the waste pile beside it.

The rules

• Foundations build up by suit, from Ace to King. Any empty foundation takes an Ace.
• Columns build down in the same suit: the 9 of spades goes on the 10 of spades.
• You move one card at a time. Moving a run in order at once is allowed only as far as empty columns would let you do it card by card: one card normally, two with one empty column, four with two.
• An empty column takes any card or run.
• Tap the deck to turn one card onto the waste; its top card can be played to a column or a foundation.
• The classic game goes through the deck once. In Settings you can choose two passes, which lets you turn the waste over one time.
• You win when all 104 cards are on the foundations.

Tips

• Empty columns are the most valuable thing on the table. Make them early, and do not fill one without a reason.
• Aces and twos buried in a column hold up everything. Dig them out first.
• Before you turn the next card from the deck, make every useful move on the table: with one pass, a card you skip is gone for good.
• Stuck? Undo a few moves, or ask for a hint: it knows a way to the end.

Questions

Can every deal be won? Yes. Before you see a deal, the computer plays it through to make sure there is a way to win. With one pass that is true for only about one deal in eight, so we keep a list of proven deals.

Is there a daily deal? Yes, with two passes through the deck: everyone gets the same deal each day, and you can compare your moves with others.

Why can I not move a long run? In Forty Thieves you really move one card at a time. Empty columns are where you park cards along the way, so they set how long a run can travel.